PCs Weak, HP Bleeds Share

Between unimaginative products, competition from tablets and smartphones, the flood-created squeeze on hard drives and high prices, PC shipments dropped somewhere between 0.2% and 1.4% in the fourth quarter compared to 4Q10 according to IDC and Gartner. IDC is the more optimistic one. And remember Q4 is taking everything into consideration strong because of the holidays.

The brunt of the component shortages are only beginning to be felt, Gartner said, casting a lengthening shadow over the market's performance in the months ahead and consumers may as well delay purchases in anticipation of Microsoft's new Windows 8 operating system coming out in the second half. Since Windows 8 is being optimized for tablets, that may have an additional impact. It is unclear whether an onslaught of Ultrabooks will tickle laptops.

The states the top PC vendors were HP

In the states the top PC vendors were HP, down 26% to 4.1 million units, Dell, down 5%, and Apple, the only company to register year-over-year growth. HP lost six point of market share when it came in with only 23%. Dell is at 22%. Mac shipments grew about 21% and Apple now owns near 12% of the US market.

Maureen O'Gara the most read innovation reporter for the past 20 years, is the Cloud Computing and Virtualization News Desk editor of SYS-CON Media. She is the publisher of famous "Billygrams" and the editor-in-chief of "Client/Server News" for more than a decade. One of the most respected research reporters in the business, Maureen can be reached by email at maureen(at)sys-con.com or paperboy(at)g2news.com, and by phone at 516 759-7025. Twitter: @MaureenOGara